As she completes her first year at the Max Rady College of Medicine at the Bannatyne campus, she reflects on the journey that has gotten her to where she is today. 

From the beginning of her journey at UM, Grace was introduced to St John’s college by her older sister who was also involved at the college. She explored the benefits of the student membership, academic support, scholarship opportunities, and the sense of community she felt while studying for her undergraduate degrees. 

“St John’s has been helpful throughout my academics. I studied at St John’s when I was on the Fort Garry campus, and now, even at the Bannatyne campus, I can still be involved with SJC and their scholarship opportunities.”

As a 2023 SJC scholarship recipient, Grace remains connected to SJC, regardless of being on the Bannatyne campus. 

She adds, “It’s been a very unifying and community-building environment. I made new friends during my undergraduate degree at St John’s, with whom I’m still connected today.”

As she moves forward into her second year of medicine coming up, Grace looks to pass on the lesson she has learned to fellow students to never give up after the first try. “If you don’t succeed the first time, it doesn’t mean it won’t happen.”

To learn more about our student membership and upcoming scholarship opportunities, visit our website.

We started the week with our St John’s College Student Council at the Welcome Day event, where we met thousands of first-year students as they began their University of Manitoba journey.   

In talking with students, both new and returning college members, you can feel the excitement as they return to campus and into hands-on learning again with their friends.   

We spoke with our student council, SJCSA, about the week, here’s what they had to say:   

“Seeing the smiles on people’s faces and feeling the buzz around campus, it’s great to be on campus and connecting with new college members. We can’t wait for what’s ahead this year!” 

If you aren’t a member or looking for a small community within the broad UM campus, sign up here so you can enjoy our events like Jumpstart last week!   

Speaking of Jumpstart, SJCSA continued to kick off the school year with a record-breaking numbers of students attending since before the pandemic. You can read more about what Jumpstart is here.   

With various students attending from all faculties, including Nursing, Science, Asper School of Business, Agriculture, Engineering, and Arts, it was a blast seeing students of all programs connect in one space again over food, games, prizes, and conversation.  

We can’t wait to see what’s in store for the rest of the year!   

View our membership benefits on our website, found here.   

Remember to become a member today!   

The procedure can be life-saving for Canadians who have battled, or are battling, a Clostridium difficile (C. diff) infection. Patients with C. diff infections suffer from a variety of gastrointestinal difficulties including diarrhea and cramping. In extreme cases, surgery may be necessary. Around 2,500 cases of C. diff are reported in Canada each year; approximately 16 prove fatal. However, a new program in Winnipeg may offer affected Manitobans hope.

The idea behind FMT is simple: restore the healthy balance of gut bacteria living in the intestine. If you can find a donor who has a healthy balance, you can restore the disrupted balance in an afflicted recipient.

This past year, Faculty of Science professor Ayush Kumar and Manitoba Clinic gastroenterologist Dr. Christopher Schneider teamed up to demonstrate how clinical and basic science can work together to ease patient suffering long-term and potentially eliminate the life-threatening effects of drug-resistant C. diff.

“What some don’t realize is as bacteria rapidly gain resistance to our existing arsenal of antibiotics, infections caused by antibiotic-resistant bacteria are becoming increasingly difficult to treat,” explains Kumar. “While finding new and effective antibiotics is a critical part of dealing with antibiotic resistance, equally important is the use of non-conventional treatment options such as fecal transplants.”

Inspired by FMT movements across Canada, Schneider had been working tirelessly to introduce a program in Manitoba. The main obstacle he faced was finding a lab to process the donor stool. After two years of red tape, rejection and dead ends, introducing a FMT program in Manitoba didn’t look promising.

“It was a frustrating two years,” recalls Schneider, “I worked in Montreal previously where they have a successful FMT program. I saw how this procedure was changing the lives of the individuals suffering with C. diff infections and wanted to offer Manitobans a viable option.”

That all changed in 2019.

Schneider and Kumar met by chance at their kids’ daycare in 2017. Schneider was explaining his work and difficulty to Kumar, who, with no reservations, immediately offered his lab and expertise.

A champion in his field, Kumar is the Vice-President of the Canadian Society of Microbiologists (CSM) and Professor in the Department of Microbiology at the U of M.

The unlikely duo set to work, hurdling through obstacles and approvals within two months.

“It was amazing,” notes Schneider, “Dr. Kumar didn’t have to help me but he did, without his support and the use of his lab we wouldn’t talking about this program today.”

“After speaking with Dr. Schneider, I thought why not take this opportunity to collaborate,” says Kumar. “I have the resources and equipment he needed to get this program off the ground. I’m thrilled to be part of this program and helping Manitobans in need of this treatment.”

Ayush Kumar, Gabriel Faucher and Chris Schneider preparing the donor stool for transplant

Kumar and Schneider’s teams successfully performed Manitoba’s first FMT transplant earlier this year.

With a 95 per cent success rate for C. diff infections, FMT is not only improving the quality of life for patients, but also saving an already strained health-care system hundreds of thousands of dollars.

“This procedure is extremely economical when you consider one year of oral antibiotics for a single C. diff. patient costs approximately $150,000,” notes Schneider. “That’s $150,000 funded by the tax payer through the Manitoba Pharmacare Program.” The cost to perform his procedure via colonoscopy is $275.

Schneider and Kumar are working to grow a sustainable FMT program in Manitoba. Their long-term goal is to create a frozen stool bank, with pre-screened processed stools that will allow them to offer FMT to the wider Manitoba public as needed.

Dr. Schneider and Dr. Kumar would both like to give credit to their colleagues for contributing to Manitoba’s Fecal Microbiota Transplant (FMT) program.

• Gabriel Faucher, Biomedical Engineer
• Erica Silva, Medical Assistant
• Graduate students and post-doctoral fellows from the Kumar laboratory

The poster competition was the final act in what has been a busy few months for those involved with S.U.R.E. Sponsored jointly by the Deans of Research and Student Experience, the program is divided into two streams: 1) physical and computational sciences and 2) life sciences. Since May, there have been near-weekly sessions focused on teaching the 30 or so students skills to which they wouldn’t usually be exposed in class.

The theme of this year’s S.U.R.E. was career development, and its’ goal was to help undergrads prepare for careers in research and science. Program coordinator Kristen Kindrachuk has been the primary force behind the creation and development of S.U.R.E., and is pleased that this second years’ worth of activities have been so productive for the participants.

“The purpose of [S.U.R.E.] is twofold. Number one, we want to better engage our summer undergraduate students at an early stage and help them to navigate their future careers in science, and help them to be aware of the skills that they will need going forward. This year we covered the basics of how to do research in terms of finding information, using libraries, presenting information. How to decide what format you should present it in. Should you opt to present your research as a poster or an oral presentation at a conference? Should you be presenting your work as an original research paper or a review paper and what the differences are.”

If the first objective of S.U.R.E. is to get undergrads geared up for careers in science, the second is to involve grad students in the planning and implementation of the program. Kindrachuk feels that this will give them skills they will be able to use in their own future careers: leadership, mentoring, project management and teamwork.

“For the most part, the sessions were things that the graduate students felt were important, and information that they would have found valuable as undergrads. So by giving them those opportunities, it helps to get them experience that will help them not only in their future careers but also in scholarship applications and things like that.”

Biological Sciences PhD candidate Melanie Lalonde was one of the graduate students who helped make this summer’s S.U.R.E. a success. She sees a great deal of value for undergrads who choose to participate, and feels that the poster competition was a fitting end to a productive summer.

“The sessions are informal and convey a comfortable environment for students to ask questions and receive valuable answers that they may not have otherwise had the chance or confidence to. The poster competition offers unique and useful skills that include critically thinking about the scope of their summer project and how to communicate their progress to a diverse audience.”

Given by department heads or department representatives, the sessions were meant to inform participants about the various types of research that are going on in the Faculty of Science. Students were encouraged to identify mentors or supervisors, as well as look for a lab in which to work if that was their preference as they pursued grad studies.

One session in particular dealt with careers in academia. Faculty members spoke about their own career trajectories and offered advice to students. Kindrachuk speculates that many undergrads assume that becoming a professor is fairly straightforward, when the reality now is that the process can be much more convoluted. She stressed that while a life in academia is possible, it may not be the best option for everyone. For those students not destined for a life in academia, S.U.R.E. helps to give an idea of what they can expect and what they should be doing at all stages of their training.

Participants such as Raelene Engelberg, currently part of Dr. Ayush Kumar’s lab in the Department of Microbiology, are positive that S.U.R.E. was time well spent:

“The summer research experience provided some great insight into what comes after my education. I feel that I’ve received valuable advice for how to connect with future employers, both in and out of a research setting.”

Chemistry undergrad Olamide Sogeke also found the program a good use of his summer. He says it was “an honour” working under the supervision of Dr. Jennifer van Wijngaarden and her research team.

“Everyone played a key role in shaping my understanding of microwave spectroscopy and gaining some valuable technical skills.  I wish to say that our first discovery of the global minimum structure of allyl isocyanate was my favorite part of the research, but in truth, it is nothing compared to the overall self-growth that I felt throughout my time as an undergraduate research student.”

Winners of the 2018 Summer Undergraduate Research Experience Poster Competition were as follows: 

• Life Sciences: Daniel Gussakovsky and Breann Recksiedler
• Physical and Computational Sciences: Ariel Glikman and Nils Refvik

S.U.R.E. Program Poster Competition Winners 2018.

Research at the University of Manitoba is partially supported by funding from the Government of Canada Research Support Fund.